When parents bring their kids to the pediatrician, one of the most important checks is to have the childs heigh, weight, and BMI plotted on growth charts to understand their development. The charts, a screen of which appears below, are ubiquitious.
Sure enough, many many EHRs automatically show the graph and the patient's position on the chart right there making it easy for physicians and patients to review. They included automated features to measure growth velocity etc. However while the EHR stores the BMI, height, and weight measurements, Most systems do not store the comparative measure of those values for the child's age. This leaves analysts and data scientists in a tricky position when it comes to estimating obesity. How do we identify children who may be obese absent this information?